EALING residents living in Band D properties will be paying an extra £93.40 a year for their council tax bill after the annual budget was approved by councillors.

Ealing Council's budget was given the green light on Tuesday, March 2, which included an increase of 1.99% for the local authority's levy and 3% for the social care precept.

While there was praise for maintaining frontline services and protecting the most vulnerable with initiatives such as council tax exemption for care leavers, cabinet members were also forced to defend their position to close Acton re-use and recycling centre in a bid to save £7 million to balance the books.

Labour council leader Julian Bell blasted the council tax rise as a 'Tory tax bombshell'.

On the centre closure he added: "We don't want to make these decisions, but these are the difficult choices you have to make when you are actually in power and trying to make a budget balance when you have no money and the government are cutting you 64p in the £1 in the last 10 years."

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have both been campaigning to keep the recycling centre open with concerns that residents in the borough will have to travel to the recycling centre in Greenford which will increase likelihood of fly tipping and increase car journeys.

But cllr Bell said it was 'nonsense' as a recycling centre on Abbey Road, in Park Royal would be made available to residents to go to as a replacement.

He said that from Ealing Council's headquarters at Perceval House on Uxbridge Road, it was a one minute difference to drive to Abbey Road compared to Acton's site in Stirling Road.

"Let's stop that nonsense before it goes any further.

"We didn't want to do this, but we have to do it and we will find an opportunity for people to recycle at the Abbey Road centre," he said.

But Conservative councillor Anthony Young warned it wasn't 'good practice' to announce the closure within a budget report as it makes it a 'done deal' without any public scrutiny.

Lib Dem member Andrew Steed added: "Our amendment singles out the bewildering decision to close the Acton recycling depot.

"The most depressing part of this whole exercise is that the senior officer in charge has gone out of his way to justify the closure of the Stirling Road site because of the development potential of that site in Acton of potential capital gain of £1.2million maybe more."

Despite setting out the Lib Dem position against the budget, cllr Steed said the group accepted the increase in the borough's council tax and supported the increase of a 300% premium to be paid on top of council tax by property owners of homes left empty for more than 10 years.

The huge £400-million-loan to Ealing Council's own housing development company Broadway Living was also approved in the budget over a 50-year-period.

It is aiming to build 1,500 new homes, the 'majority' of which to be 'genuinely affordable'.

Speaking after the meeting, finance boss cllr Bassam Mahfouz said: "Despite the challenges we are facing, we are determined to continue supporting our residents.

"I am pleased that we have a roadmap out of lockdown, but it's clear that the financial and social impacts of the past 12 months are going to be felt for many years to come.

"The services we provide to the most vulnerable people in society are going to be more important than ever in the years to come and that is why we are focused on protecting them, despite the unrelenting pressures we are facing.

"We want to be able to meet the increasing demand that we know is coming."

"Unfortunately, the council tax rise is unavoidable.

"We aren't happy about it and would much rather the government had provided the funding we need rather than pass the costs of the pandemic on to our residents.

"However, I'm proud that we are continuing to invest in the borough."